1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a maxima search method and system for sensed signals, and more particularly, to a maxima search method and system for audio signals processed by a speech processor in cochlea implant systems.
2. Related Art
Audio processors in implantable cochlea implants, and particularly in totally implantable cochlea implants, have extremely tight margins in respect of the amount of power they may consume. For example, the maximum current at standard battery voltage may be as low as 50 microamperes. Commercially available digital signal processors or portable low-power applications manufactured in CMOS technology consume at least one order of magnitude of power more than the aforementioned power restriction.
To provide optimum intelligibility of various parts of the speech spectrum, the selection of M maxima out of the N available analysis channels, when implemented on general purpose signal processors or micro-controllers, requires in the worst case M*N sequential searches over the data set of the N analysis channels. For a typical case of N equal to 20 and M equal to 8, this search scheme would require in the worst case scenario of 160 sequential data comparisons and/or consequently result in long processing delays at a considerable power consumption.